7/14/09

Walking Daydream on Table Mountain

Here's a link to an essay I wrote for Outside Bozeman's Blog.

Thanks for checking it out!

7/11/09

Economics, Society and Art

(This post is a reply to a Facebook comment by my friend Marc - about my previous post, "Giving Work Away for Free" (see comments on previous post). Marc is an exceptional artist who is always pushing all of art's boundaries - creation, exhibition, distribution and philosophy.

He also understands that there is a paradigm shift happening in the art world and that discussion is invaluable if we are to understand and adapt to this shift.)



I read somewhere (sorry, I can't remember where, I read a lot!) that many of the people developing opensource software do it to improve other software they are developing for themselves or their company. While not directly, they are getting paid either by their company or by driving people to the products that pay. So, even though they probably enjoy developing software, there is a financial incentive to create opensource.

Artists also enjoy creating (I bet some would say creating software is an art also). Most artists don't do it for the money. We look at the money as a bonus because the gap between time spent on art verses the economic benifit from said art is huge. So, we have second and third jobs to finance our creations.

But, it's called art "work" for a reason - it's work so, according to our economic system, should be paid for.


Society needs art to question and create, to give birth to new ideas through the evolution of old ones. But, society doesn't value art, sees it as frivolous and self indulgent. So is making money within a capitalist system. Why do you make money? To buy a nice car, go out t
o eat or live in a nice place. Some would argue making money is about survival.

Well, making art is about survival as well. Survival of the soul and the voice for t
he individual and society. We learn about past societies mostly through their art.

I (along with other writers and photographers) am trying to change the value (none) society has currently placed on art to something that reflects the contribution of art to society. It's easier with photography and writing than other art because these things are used by a capitalist system to communicate within and promote the system. Look around you - writing and photography are everywhere! Adds, newspapers, blogs, menus.... You get the idea. Without writing and photography there is no society, or at least one we cannot imagine.

But, since the digital revolution the business model for writing and photography is in upheaval. We are are trying to develop a new business model within this economic system. I spend too much money on my writing and photography training and equipment to give the products away for free. I have bills to pay, equipment and software to upgrade, more skills to learn and improve and a business to run. (I guess making money is about economic survival)

So until our society changes into a new type of economic system I need to get paid for my work.